Pidgin, The Acorn Make 'Canada’s Best New Restaurants' List

Two restaurants and one food truck have major reason for celebration today, as they’ve been named among Canada’s top newcomers in enRoute magazine’s prestigious "Best New Restaurants" ranking: Pidgin, The Acorn, and Vij’s Railway Express food truck.

Each year, the magazine sends one lucky food writer across the country, on a quest to visit 35 new restaurants suggested to them by a panel that "includes many of the country’s leading culinary professionals." The writer then chooses the top 10, as well as a People’s Choice Award.

The Acorn, which was ranked ninth, is a vegetarian restaurant on Main Street serving dishes like kale Caesar salad with silken tofu, dulse, and tempeh, and truffle macaroni and cheese with asparagus and edible flowers. Pidgin, helmed by chef Makoto Ono, came in fifth, and his creative menu of dishes like a foie gras rice bowl with soy-braised daikon radish and chestnuts has developed a rabid cult following. Vij’s Railway Express, a food truck specializing in Indian-inspired cuisine, took the People’s Choice Award.